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Imperator Dev Diary, 10th of February 2020

Hi all,

As the eagle-eyed amongst you noticed last week, I included a subtle hint upon the subject of today’s DD.

Accompanying the Deity rework that you have already been introduced to, we’re working on a dynamic Holy Sites feature. In keeping with the organic way that Pantheons and deities work, we wanted holy sites to be entirely within player control - something you could dedicate, destroy, and utilise, without having a strict, pre-existing list of sites from day 1.


How will they work?

Any territory can be designated a Holy Site to a Deity which exists as part of your pantheon, and which does not currently have a designated Holy Site. The territory needs to be of the same dominant parent religion as the deity, and there will be a substantial cost for doing so. There can only be one holy site for a deity in the world (consider them a parent temple): if you want to acquire the site for a deity in your pantheon yet it is owned by someone else, you’ll need to resort to more violent means.

If you own and control the holy site dedicated to a deity, the passive and active effects of that deity will be increased. They will have a ‘level’ which is tied directly to the city status of the territory in which they are placed. This ties into some further goodies which I’ll explain more about in a future diary.

You can, of course own holy sites dedicated to Deities that are not part of your pantheon, though you will receive no additional bonuses for doing so.


What about historical sites?

There will be a bunch of pre-scripted holy sites such as the temple of Apollo at Delphi, or the Asclepeion at Epidaurus. Many deities will not have pre-scripted sites.


Can we destroy holy sites, once they’re created?

You will be able to desecrate holy sites, effectively removing the dedication for ephemeral bonuses, and allowing the site to be rededicated elsewhere. This will harm your relations with countries who worship this deity as part of their pantheon.


As a bonus, here’s a WIP wireframe of how your new Religion View might look, after the 1.4 update:


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Next week, we’ll be back to have a look at some of the Missions that will be coming as part of the paid Content Pack: Magna Graecia, that will accompany the 1.4 release, as well as a look at the revised holdings mechanic, which contains a new take on character land ownership.
 
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No, they have not been scrapped.
Im sry to ask again but im not sure if my comment got lost in the number of comment but, one thing I didnt fully understand yet was the thing with the seasons and so on. So 1.4 will come with the religions changes or will it also include the culture changes or is this for 1.5? Kinda lost the track on this season thing. One season one update? Or more updates? Also will each season or update contain a dlc?
Still looking forward to the update and I hope the Magna Graecia Dlc comes with like tarentum, syracus missions :)

Answer would be rly appreciated, I promise I will buy next dlc :D
 
Im sry to ask again but im not sure if my comment got lost in the number of comment but, one thing I didnt fully understand yet was the thing with the seasons and so on. So 1.4 will come with the religions changes or will it also include the culture changes or is this for 1.5? Kinda lost the track on this season thing. One season one update? Or more updates? Also will each season or update contain a dlc?
Still looking forward to the update and I hope the Magna Graecia Dlc comes with like tarentum, syracus missions :)

Answer would be rly appreciated, I promise I will buy next dlc :D

The focus for 1.4 is Religion. Culture is not the focus of this update.
 
Has the localised deity names been scrapped, or is it just because it's heavy WIP that the dieties for Rome have the Greek and not the Latin names?
Ah yes, my favorite Italic divinities of the IV sec :

*squints*

Zeus and Hermes
For what it's worth, the screenshot suggests that it is the list of deities that make up the "Hellenic Pantheon of Macedon", even though the played state is indeed Rome. Not sure if one could view other states' religious affairs before, but maybe that is the case here?
 
Also hoping we can have different holy sites for Greek, Roman and Etruscan gods. Especially when the game starts, they were very different, and given that they have different names, it should be possible (for instance, Mars should absolutely have Rome as a holy site, but that seems less appropriate for Ares).
 
Also hoping we can have different holy sites for Greek, Roman and Etruscan gods. Especially when the game starts, they were very different, and given that they have different names, it should be possible (for instance, Mars should absolutely have Rome as a holy site, but that seems less appropriate for Ares).

They are different deities in the game, so they will be able to have different holy sites.
 
So some questions:

1: Will each of the deities get unique icon/images in the update?

2: Will Zeus' holy site be the Temple of Zeus in Olympia and Athena's the Pantheon in Athens?

3: This is half a suggestion, half a question, but with Holy Sites now being a thing, can it also be possible that whenever we build a regular temple in a city, it might be possible to dedicate the temple (or at least the first one we build in a province) to a specific god for a additional cost and possible small bonus?
 
Looks amazing, will breath so much life into the religions of the game!
On another, more selfish note, I also hope there will be lots of scripting effects/triggers etc for this new mechanic as it especially seems like a system that could be greatly expanded upon by mods.
 
So some questions:

1: Will each of the deities get unique icon/images in the update?

2: Will Zeus' holy site be the Temple of Zeus in Olympia and Athena's the Pantheon in Athens?

3: This is half a suggestion, half a question, but with Holy Sites now being a thing, can it also be possible that whenever we build a regular temple in a city, it might be possible to dedicate the temple (or at least the first one we build in a province) to a specific god for a additional cost and possible small bonus?

1. No, with the amount of deities in the game, this is not even remotely feasible.
2. Probably.
3. No.
 
Exciting stuff! Any chance you will at some point release DLCs with new starting points in the roman history time-line? I would seriously like to see a campaign involving Hannibal, but perhaps also campaigns featuring late republic, early-to-high roman empire. Perhaps the principate and expanded mechanics revolving around that.

Another thing that would be awesome would be if you guys could give the democracies of the hellenic world som love. Democracy ≠ republic
 
Yes this is not to be read as the only place where the god is worshipped (also why you can have a god in your pantheon without owning its holy site) but the main center of worship in the entire world :)

Problem is that is just the thing with Polytheism: There is not a main center of worship in the world. For example if you make Delphi the main place of worship in the world for Apollo you totally ignore that Didyma near Milet was equally important, later on in our timeframe maybe even more important. Not to mention Daphne and several more sanctuaries. All of them are panhellenic.
 
What's the point? This adds so little that it might as well not exist. (Diplo modifiers when diplomacy is broken and pointless?)

It also makes minimal historic sense.
 
Will Judaism have Jerusalem as a holy site? I ask because it appears to me that Judaism might get a short deal due to its monotheistic nature. May it have more connections in that regard to figures and events in the religion that occurred much as it appears that the holy sites in this for the polytheistic faiths are connected to deities themselves. Just thinking of this is a testament to how unique Judaism is in respect to this period of history.